BLACKBIRD, = ry Veh hi 
Thrush is the day her brood quit their nest; and how, if you 
catch one of her awkward, ill-lying, soon-tired squad of young 
ones, she will follow you with much objurgation and no little 
plaintive entreaty that “a great fellow like you, who ought to be 
ashamed of yourself for frightening a poor little fluttering crea- 
ture like that, will put it down again soon, and not hurt it, and 
be a dear, good man,—now do, won’t you! ”—Fig. 10, plate IT. 
* 42, REDWING.—(Turdus tliacus). 
Like the Fieldfare, frequent in winter; but breeds im another 
country. 
* 43. BLACKBIRD.—(Zurdus merula). 
Black Ouzel, Amzel, Ouzel, also pronounced sometimes in North 
Yorkshire, so as to sound like Ussel or Oossel. Merle in Shaks- 
peare.—The Blackbird’s tawny bill and sable plumage and sweet 
mellow song—would one like it as well if he were as lavish of 
it as the Thrush? Who does not welcome and love him? And 
to a very youthful nest-hunter what a deserving bird the Black- 
bird is. Making his nest usually in such places and so that 
detection is not at all a matter of course, and yet not altogether 
beyond the discernment. of inexperienced eyes. The discovery 
of our first Blackbird’s nest is always felt to be a sort of 
achievement, and one to be spoken of with reasonable self- 
approbation too. In the hedge, at the bottom of the hedge, on 
the stump, behind the stump, below the stump, an excresence on 
the side of the ragged old tree, in a wall tree, in an evergreen 
or other thick bush—how often have we found the nest in these 
and such like places. Once we found one which we set down 
as made by the untidiest Blackbird that ever lived. It was in a 
thorn hedge thick and high, and a great rough structure. But 
a lock of wool, a big one, had been unmanageable and had 
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